2023-08-18 –, Room 325
Language: English
A strategy to activate all institutions around the world on the Wikimedia projects: an accompanying path aimed at all institutions to start an open access policy by making 20 images available with open licenses and tools. The proposal is based on the strategy and instruments implemented by the ongoing project "Empowering Italian GLAMs" which focuses on 3'000 Italian museums (promoted Wikimedia Italy, with ICOM Italy, Creative Commons Italy, University of Turin and co-funding Wikimedia Foundation).
The current GLAMs model facilitates the collaboration with major institutions that already have extensive digitalizations of their heritage and it involves a Wikipedian in residence. However, this approach is not effective if we want to involve and activate even the smallest institutions that represent most of the world's institutions, which can provide a real diversity of contents and which often intentionally present a divergent perspective with respect to large institutions.
Based on the project “Empowering Italian GLAMs" (2022-2024) which is currently targeting 3,000 Italian museums in a particularly complex legislative context, this session presents a strategy baed on a simple communication campaign which invites all institutions to make available 20 images (building and examples of their collections) with open licenses and tools through an online form. The online form does not directly publish images on Wikimedia Commons, but accompanies institutions in a process which allows them to review their data on Wikidata, upload a permission and open access policy, accompany their images with a text and bibliography. This external interface (which subsequently allows to validate and upload contents) allows to manage authorizations and complex legislative situations, it archives documents as a primary source and it provides an institutional mediated contribution to Wikimedia projects.
This process is a starting point in creating and implementing an open access policy on a small selection of content, it allows institutions to test “openness” and take advantage of the synergy with the Wikimedia projects (by contributing to Wikimedia Commons, improving data on Wikidata and possibly on one or more Wikipedia articles). By simply focusing on round twenty images, the approach potentially addresses all institutions, even the smallest ones and those who do not currently have digitalizations. Furthermore, rather than focusing on opening the collections, the method is close to communication strategies with which many organizations are already familiar (for example by providing images to journalists or for promotional brochures). The method is a first step in openness which can be followed by further contributions, up to a complete data management plan based on the principle of open by default.
Everyone can participate in this session
How will you deliver this session? –In-person, live: The speaker or speakers will all be onsite in Singapore
How does your session relate to the event themes: Diversity, Collaboration, Future? –This session focuses on the theme of diversity.
In order for Wikimedia projects to document and represent the diversity of the world, we need to activate both people and institutions.
Institutions (GLAMs, but also universities, foundations, journals, media, NGOs working in cooperation and development) own, produce and support the creation of a vast number of multilingual and multimedia contents. These are digital reproductions of their works in the public domain but also educational resources, websites, researches and publications. Supporting the openness of the contents of institutions around the world through the use of open licenses and tools (in the context of open access, open data, open science and openGLAMs) allows to benefit from a vast, diverse and existing knowledge.